Vol. LVII. No. 2514. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 2, 1898. 
*1 PER YEAR. 
NEW ECONOMY AT ROCKLAND FARM. 
FAIR PROFIT AT HOARDING H O R 8 E 8 . 
Such Boarders Eat Up Waste Fodder. 
I began farming about four years ago with an in¬ 
debtedness of $3,000, and if any one thinks that he is 
about to read how, in four years, I paid off $3,000 by 
means of the economy that is practiced at Rockland 
Farm, I greatly regret to say that he is mistaken ; for 
my indebtedness last Fall, as far as 1 can figure up, 
will amount to just $3,000. Still one tires of reading 
uninterrupted successes, and perhaps the tale of my 
wrestlings with farm economy, with so far such limited 
success, may not prove unprofitable. 
I believe that the only way for any man to economize 
on a farm is to get the land rich. He must be able jO 
raise big crops, or he cannot hope to succeed, and he 
must get his land in condition to raise big crops even 
though it does cost money that he has not. I used to 
think that the way to economize was to. curtail the 
outlay instead of increasing the income, and I used 
South Carolina rock instead of raw bone. I now be¬ 
lieve in a liberal use of good fertilizer or manure, and 
I am practicing what I preach. If it land me in the 
poorhouse, I may be held up as an object-lesson, but 
anyway I expect to keep on until I have to stop. 
My conversion to the idea that the essentia., of suc¬ 
cessful farming is rich land was due to a r.emaik let 
fall by the editor of The R-. N.-Y., so he is, in a 
measure, responsible for my success or failure. After 
becoming converted, the first question was how to sret 
the land rich. I thought over the idea some time, and 
finally borrowed $300, bought eight steers, and fed 
them three months. As a result, I received for them 
$40 more than I had paid, out of which I had to pay 
for feed, labor and interest on the money. This was 
partly due to my inexperience as a cattle feeder, partly 
due to the market, which was on when I bought and 
off when 1 sold, and partly due to my being cheated, 
both when I bought and sold. This sickened me of 
cattle feeding. While the gain in weight had been 
enough to encoui’age me in the belief that I could be 
a successful feeder, yet too much depended upon the 
buying and selling. Then I tried boarding horses, 
anil my second Winter I had 29, thelfigures for which 
are as follows: 
75 barrels of corn... 
2,000 bundles of fodder (bought from a neighbor).... 40 uu 
3 tons of hay at .. .. n0 
One-half ton linseed meal. 1,1 
proceeds to haul it in, and when he leaves the fodder 
to stand out in the weather, it seems to me that just as 
much of a mistake is made as when the hay is left out. 
I have used a lot of bright wheat straw ; I run it 
A THOROUGHBRED BOARDER. 103. 
through the cutter, mix it with the cut fodder, and 
the horses will eat it just as clean as they do the fod¬ 
der. Cut and piled by itself, they will not eat it, but 
when it is mixed with the fodder, it absorbs some of 
Received from board of 29 horses 
Balance 
■$215 75 
486 00 
. $271 25 
)ut of this balance, must come the price of nearly all 
ihe fodder that I raised myself. The rest 
s clear profit, for I attended to them my¬ 
self, hiring no extra labor, and if any one 
,vants any items about wintering horses, 
[ think I can help him. 
If there is any secret in wintering horses 
cheaply it is in using unsalable feed. I 
io not by any means mean musty hay or 
any other feed that is not wholesome, but 
the feed found on nearly every farm that 
is perfectly nutritious, but is not salable. 
The stubble fields are cut in the fall, and 
if this is carefully cured, it makes the 
best kind of feed for horses, and it is by 
turning this kind of feed into cash by 
feeding it to horses rather than letting it 
rot that I have been able to make any 
money in feeding horses. If the corn fod¬ 
der is allowed to stand out in the field 
until a convenient season arrives for its 
transportation to the barn, some of it is 
likely to stay pretty late before it comes finally to 
shelter. I believe that three tons of good fodder run 
through a cutter are equal to at least two of hay. If 
any man has two tons of hay in the field, he at once 
HAPPY WINTER BOARDERS CAUGHT NAPPING. Flo. 104. 
the scent of the fodder, and thereby acquires that 
quality too little thought of—palatability. Give a 
horse all he wants of any rough feed, no matter how 
rough it is, if only it be cured right, and he will need 
ICE WAGON HORSES ON WINTER VACATION. Fig. 105. 
little corn or other grain to keep him going. I be¬ 
lieve that Nature puts in all of her forage plants 
enough to keep any animal, only we let most of the 
substance get away from us by improper handling on 
our part. A field of weedy hay, if lett until the stalks 
are like wood, is not of much use ; but if cut early and 
cured, it makes a nice change for the horse. But when 
working under the idea of saving grain, there must be 
no idea of saving roughage. The horse must have an 
abundance, for if we economize at both ends, we will 
have a poor horse, which is mighty poor economy. 
One of the greatest helps in utilizing corn fodder is 
a cutter. Fed long, a horse will leave the husk, part 
of the blades and the greater part of the stalk ; cut, 
he will eat the husk, all the blades and the greater 
part of the stalk, and the convenience in handling 
both feed and manure will pay for all the labor of cut¬ 
ting. I do enjoy giving a horse a bushel basket of cut 
fodder, knowing that I am saving just that much good 
Timothy hay, and the horse enjoys it as much as I do. 
Oil Meal for Horses. —The chemists tell us that 
oil meal contains a large proportion of hair-making 
elements, and for that reason, I always try to let the 
horses have some every Spring when they make their 
new coats. I have never found anything that would 
equal oil meal for making a glossy coat. Besides this, 
for horses, I have used it only for its laxative effect, 
believing that I was repaid for its use by its keeping 
the bowels in good condition. I have never made it a 
part of a regular ration for the entire year. J or 
colts, I consider it one of the best of grains. I have 
two that I am boarding that have been fed on a mix¬ 
ture of one part oil meal and four parts bran (by 
weight), and their growth and condition are all that 
could be desired. They get 12 pounds a day of the 
mixture, which gives them 2 1-5 pounds a day of the 
oil meal. This is the largest quantity I have ever fed 
horses, and only the most beneficial results have fol¬ 
lowed. Oil meal must be used with caution. A horse 
weighing 1,200 pounds would not stand as much as 
these colts get, if it is begun at once with such a large 
feed. I prefer mixing with bran. Corn is my main¬ 
stay, and I want as much muscle-making feed as pos¬ 
sible to balance it. 
Finally, the horse wants comfortable quarters. Give 
him a box-stall in which he can turn around, lie down 
and take things easy, and keep plenty of wheat straw 
or leaves in his stall for his bed. He enjoys a com¬ 
fortable bed as much as his master, and will pay for 
it by keeping in better condition. P. B. crosby. 
Maryland. 
R. N.-Y.—We wish to give all sides to the oil-meal 
question. Here is a note from W. W. Latta, of In¬ 
diana, who has fed a great many horses : “ The farm¬ 
ers’ organizations here bought and fed at various 
periods four car-loads of old-process oil meal. I used 
a little over four tons. It was fed to all 
kinds of stock, and with the various kinds 
of grains used. No member that I know 
of ever attempted to keep records by 
weighing feed and animals at stated 
periods to determine the relative cost and 
gain. All members experimented more or 
less in its use, and kept as careful watch 
as possible as to results. Much time was 
devoted to the discussion of the matter, 
and for a long time, members differed in 
opinion as much as possible, but after two 
or three seasons’ trial, we came gradually 
together in view of the matter. The final 
conclusion was that animals do not like it 
and will seldom eat it until they learn to 
relish it by its being constantly where 
they must eat it to get the other food, and 
that it agrees with all kinds of stock and 
poultry fed as an appetizer. No one of us 
ever fed more than one pint to a cow or 
horse at a meal, and no one ever saw any bad effects 
from its use. It seemed to combine well as a feed 
with corn, oats and bran, most preferring it with corn, 
because it was laxative like bran. But animals fed 
